//------------------------------//
// Night Four: Let's Play A Game! 
// Story: PinkieTail's Curse 
// by A Torn-Up Note 
//------------------------------//


December 23, 1998


2 days before Hearth’s Warming


Blake laid awake in his bed, chills running down his spine as he thought about the events of the night before. He had tried to say something to his mother during the day about a strange creature in their house, but she blamed it on nightmares, saying that it’s the side-effects from watching such terrifying movies. ‘It can’t be that, though. I’ve never had anything like this happen before.’ He thought to himself. ‘No… No movie could be doing something like this to me… So what’s going on?’ His thoughts continued to attempt to make sense of the situation until eventually, Blake passed out on his bed. 

“Don’t worry… Mama’s Here…”
Blake ran through the darkness as fast as he could, trying to escape the beast in the shadows. He looked behind him and saw the glow of the red eyes staring at him as he ran. 
“Come to Mama.” The voice said again, this time in a much more chilling tone that almost sounded demonic. 
“Stay away!” Blake cried, his hooves pounding against the ground. He brought forth all his strength, but it wasn’t enough. Every passing moment, the red eyes grew closer and the screeching sound got louder. 
“Mama’s coming for you!” A deep voice said. Blake looked back once again to see the jaws of the monster open, revealing the rows upon rows of sharp teeth, bearing down on him. 
“NOOOO!” Was the last thing he yelled before the jaws closed around him, devouring him whole.

“No!”
Blake shot up in his bed in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. He placed a hoof on his chest and felt his heart racing as if he had done several laps around his house. It took him several moments before he could collect himself, taking deep breaths. ‘It… it was just a dream…’ He thought to himself. ‘Oh, thank Celestia…’ He managed to finally calm himself, listening to the chatter of bugs and chirping of crickets coming from outside…

“Wait, what? Bugs don’t chatter.” It’s true. Blake held his tongue and listened. There was a faint noise that sounded like voices talking to each other. But it wasn’t his mother. He would be able to tell that. No, it sounded like…
“Pinkietail? But how?” Blake was confused, but also curious, so he got out of his bed, grabbed the flashlight that sat on the table next to his bed and proceeded to leave his room to investigate.

Trotting through his house, Blake followed the sounds of voices to the back door of the house, which, surprisingly, was left wide open. ‘What? Why is it open?’ He wondered as he passed through the door and into the small backyard he had. If you can call it that. It was barely bigger than the front yard and that was small enough already. The green grass has grown more in certain places of the yard, causing small patches of thick grass to lay spotted across the ground. Blake started out, walking through the grass and towards the shed in the corner of the yard. The very place where the voices were coming from. The door to the shed wasn't locked like it normally and the light inside was turned on, casting a dim yellow glow through the doorway. Blake pushed open the door a bit and peered in… Then gasped. 


Sitting on the floor was PinkieTail, chattering away happily with another Tattletail toy! ‘Another one? Where did it come from?’ Blake asked quietly as he walked in. PinkieTail turns towards him and giggled in joy, obviously happy to see him. He picked her up and held her close, looking at her curiously. “How did you get out of your box? And where did that come from?” He looked at the other Tattletail toy, which looked up at him with shy looking eyes that peeked out from behind its long pink hair. It looked a bit scared, which made Blake feel strange. 

“Let’s play a game!” PinkieTail exclaimed, smiling at Blake. He looked at her, then at the other toy. 
“Alright, I guess…” He replied.
“Yay! Tap FlutterTail to start!” PinkieTail exclaimed. Blake looked at the other toy carefully. There was something very off about her, something that just made him feel very uncomfortable. ‘I should just go back to bed. I would be safe there…’ He thought, but he looked at PinkieTail again. Her eyes looked at him, pleading for him to play. Blake sighed in defeat. 
“What could one little game do?”

A lot. One little game could do a lot of horrible things. The instant Blake tapped on FlutterTail’s head (which she nearly cried out about), the lights began to flicker. Blake looked around, unsettled by the events because it felt so… Familiar.
“No Peeking…” PinkieTail said before the lights completely blacked out, leaving Blake in complete darkness. Instantly, Blake shook his flashlight, getting the nice green glow from it as he shined it onto the spot where FlutterTail was.
‘Gone. Just great…’ Blake thought as he turned towards the door. He began to walk towards it when a sound caused him to stop in his tracks. The same screeching noise from the night before howled from outside the shed. Blake was terrified. His entire body locked up in place, unable to move as the sound began to move closer to the door. It only got louder as the sounds of thudding hoofsteps came from outside the door. Blake was uncertain of what to do. He had nowhere to go, no place to escape to like last night. He was trapped with this… Thing. This monster that was hunting him. 		‘Please don’t come in. Please don’t come in. Please don’t come in!’ Blake thought to himself as his eyes closed tightly. The sounds grew louder, closer. He could hear something else: Breathing. 
“Momma’s coming…” The disordered voice said from right outside the door. 
‘Oh, sweet Celestia, not like this!’ Blake braced himself for the worse…

And it never came. Blake waited a moment before opening his eyes. It was still dark and the light of the Flashlight had begun to dim. Blake took a moment to stand there, listening. Nothing. No screeching, no thudding, nothing. Just the crickets in the grass. ‘What… What happened?’ Blake was both scared out of his mind and confused as heck. Why didn’t she get him? He was stuck right there with no place to go, no escape. Certainly, she knew he was there because of the flashlight, but… She just left. Gone without a trace. Blake shook himself, unlocking his body from the fear that enveloped him and moved towards the door very slowly, shaking the flashlight before its glow went out. He peered around the corner and looked outside. Nothing. There was no red glaring eyes, no sharp pony-killing teeth. Just the yard. “What the actual heck?” He stated, completely confused. Shortly after that, the lights came back on, flickering back to their normal glow. 
“Try and find her!” PinkieTail exclaimed happily.
“What?” Blake looked at her, confused. Find who? Mamma? He would rather not.
“No… Find friend!” PinkieTail corrected, smiling. FlutterTail? 
“Alright, I guess…” Blake began to walk back to the house, keeping an eye out for that monster.